Craig LaBan reviews Charlie was a sinner. this week and gives the “plant-based” restaurant in Midtown Village two bells, though he does find more than a few things wrong.

Some otherwise beautiful dishes still need tweaks: The elegant sunchoke soup, pureed and poured over intricate garnishes, was spun off-kilter with too much sweetness from Asian pears. The potato gnocchi with favas were dense and doughy minus the levity of the usual egg. I saw more sweet-tart raisins than barley in the mushroom-barley toast.

Also of note, opening chef Michael Santoro has moved on, Max Hosey is now in charge of the kitchen.

That’s a good question to chew on at Nicole Marquis’s mysterious new bar on 13th Street, where you can drink bourbon and absinthe beneath a looming hardback edition of In Cold Blood, watch sultry projections of Marilyn Monroe flicker upon the ruffles of a diaphanous wall curtain, and soak up your alcohol with food completely untainted by animal products.

In an era abounding with culinary hobgoblins—gluten for him, fructose for her, GMOs for the guy down the street—veganism still reigns unrivaled as the diet of the ethically upright. But the plant-only jawn feels a little racier at Charlie Was a Sinner, and not just because it’s next door to the last surviving porn shop on this once-seedy strip. Marquis, the woman behind HipCityVeg, named her lounge the way Elmore Leonard started crime novels. Who’s Charlie? Has he—or she—repented? Exactly what sort of sin are we talking about here?

First, The Mildred was closed for a vacation. Then we heard that, due to wild variations in the number of people actually in the dining room on any given night, it was going to stay dark through the summer. A couple days ago, news started leaking out that the closure at 8th and Christian was going to be somewhat more…permanent.

And now it’s official: The Mildred is done. Representatives for ex-chef and partner Michael Santoro (who already has a new gig, running the vegan kitchen at Charlie Was A Sinner for Nicole Marquis) announced early this morning that he and Michael Dorris have closed The Mildred and parted ways “amicably.”

Santoro is reportedly looking for more opportunities to open restaurants of his own in Center City.

Cochon 555 is coming to Philadelphia on Sunday, May 25th of Memorial Day weekend. The tour touts the flavor and benefits of heritage breed pigs. The event features a lineup of five chefs who will compete to win a chance to move on to compete in the Grand Cochon at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen in June.

Michael B. Jordan Carter-Willams is your official Las Vegas favorite to win the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award. Which is not at all the most surprising fact of the Sixers season. The most surprising fact of the Sixers’ season is that they are, at 7-12, .5 games behind the Atlantic Division lead. I promise. Here’s proof.

Adam Erace recently visited The Mildred, the new restaurant by former Talula’s Garden chef Michael Santoro. Expecting to find over-the-top plates, he was surprised to find dishes as simple as chicken and biscuits on the menu. However, his did not stop The Mildred from setting a great first impression.

What we’re doing here is more personal, straight-up good cookin’ with less reliance on garnish for garnish’s sake,” says the chef. “The food looks a lot different [from Talula’s], but there’s a thread running through everything I’ve been doing for the past several years: low-temp cooking, marinading, brining, braising, the application of food science, how it affects vegetables, eggs, milk.” In Philly, we don’t have the luxury of having known Santoro for the past several years. We don’t know the Santoro of the Blue Duck in D.C. or the Santoro of the Fat Duck in London or the Santoro of Gilt in New York. All we know is the Santoro of Talula’s Garden, which is why the rustic persona of the Mildred’s menu feels like such a curveball. But what’s happening in the kitchen, behind the scenes, Santoro insists, has always been the same.

The Mildred is launching brunch this weekend. Executive chef and owner Michael Santoro has created a menu capitalizing on the cast-iron cooking techniques he also uses in his dinner offerings. Among the highlights: